A tithe

The two stray cats who arrived some years ago, never left.  We named them the Tractor Shed cats because that's where they stayed when they suddenly appeared.  Initially they were very shy and reclusive, but they have since become far bolder, and now, most days, can be found lounging on my patio table or even sitting on my patio chair - waiting very patiently for the one meal I provide them at the end of each day.  The other meal(s) they have to source or themselves, because that is the whole point of farm cats.

Tractor shed cats patiently waiting for their daily meal

By other meals, I generally mean rodents who enjoy feasting on my tomatoes, strawberries or baby butternut.  But occasionally, the farm cats need some variety to their diet, and this morning I found evidence of a mousebird who wasn't quite quick enough.

Evidence of a mousebird who wasn't quick
enough for the farm cats

There are plenty of mousebirds here in early spring - with the early season blackberries to devour.

There were so many a few weeks ago that I feared that I wouldn't get a berry crop this year.  Please, don't get me wrong.  I have no problem with paying a tithe, but sharing 90% and being provided with 10% isn't quite my idea of a tithe.

Partially eaten fruit

At least most of these berries were consumed

The mousebirds are also so wasteful.  If they would just eat a whole blackberry before moving onto the next tender morsel it wouldn't be so bad, but they seem to prefer sampling as many as possible.

Broken branch-lets = wasted fruit

They seem to be such an eager lot - in their rush to sample as many berries as possible they completely disregard the integrity of the bush - with many broken branch-lets being the evidence of this feeding frenzy.

A sample of the blackberries I have managed to
harvest for my freezer

I can't really complain though.  I have managed to pick sufficient blackberries for my freezer - for blackberry pie and jam in the future. 

 

Tradition

I don't celebrate Christmas like I used to when Ronnie was here.

Also, Natasha and the grandkids have moved to Scotland.

So, it is just Richard and I here.

There doesn't seem to be much point in putting up Christmas decorations, and decking a Christmas Tree for just the two of us.

But, in Ronnie's memory, and to honour his Christmas tradition, I always make an Advent Krantz and light a candle each Sunday before Christmas during December.

This year I chose to keep it very simple and 100% natural with fresh foliage and dried homegrown produce (chillies and dehydrated lemon slices) and fresh lavender from the garden, as well as some cinnamon and star anise from the pantry.  The candles I rolled from beeswax sheets.

As the candles aren't that tall, I've kept the conifer sprigs so that they just line the wooden board.

It's sitting on my coffee table ready to light the first candle tonight.

Ditch the chemical option

Tewshooz - it's all your fault. 😄

I posted the other day that I was not going to post on this blog anymore and got such a wonderful comment from Tewshooz that I changed my mind.

I do not have the energy - nor motivation - to create the long posts from before, but will try and keep in contact with you all via shorter, pertinent posts if I feel that I have something worthwhile to contribute.

With that said - here goes...

Every year before Christmas in preparation for festive family get togethers, my late husband, Ronnie, and I used to clean the brass and copper items that we had collected during our years together.  This "collection" included items which Ronnie had inherited from his mother.

Said cleaning involved using Brasso - a chemical rubbing compound.  And was always a mission.  It took literally hours and left us (me) with aching arms and fingers from all the rubbing.  And the process left our hands and nails filthy and imprinted with dirty Brasso residue.  As well as the surface on which we had cleaned the copper and brass items.

It was one of our "together" chores and I haven't had the will to do it since Ronnie passed away.

Until I saw a post on Facebook recently which reminded me that the brass and copper hadn't been touched in 5 years.

I was blown away.

Partially cleaned copper using toothpaste

All it took was a small squeeze of toothpaste and a plastic pot scourer.  And literally 5 minutes of my time.

I have previously successfully used cooled wood ash, but, being in short supply of wood ash at the moment, toothpaste more than adequately gets the job done.

Why has man cast aside harmless cleaning methods and adopted the use of chemicals.  All that does is benefit the corporations and their shareholders.  And harm the environment - and landfill - with waste and chemical residue.

And, unlike Brasso, this cleaning agent contains no health warnings - and no harmful chemicals are required to get the job done.  If toothpaste is good enough for my teeth (and mouth) then it is certainly OK for my hands and fingers.

Sparkling clean copper thanks to toothpaste

Can you see the difference between the clean and the "still to be cleaned copper?

You can see in the last photo that there are a number of copper items which are sorely in need of a good clean.  In honour of Ronnie I will try and sort that out before Christmas.

The copper "collection" still in need of attention

Re-usable jam tins

The mousebirds have decimated the fruit on my trees this year, so this week I had to pop into the supermarket to buy a tin of jam.

Looking at all the jars and tis of jam, I spied this...

Tin with ring pull, and re-sealable, re-usable lid

A tin of Rhodes jam with a re-usable lid.

Wonderful!

Yes, the lid is plastic, but it is really well fitting and will allow for the tin to be re-used for a myriad of times - until the lid deteriorates. 

Button, screws, beans, seeds...  And if one had to pierce that lid with tiny holes, the it could even be used for sprouting seeds.

Well done, Rhodes.  You thought outside the box.

Christmas tree alternatives

I know everyone will slowly be gearing themselves up for the Christmas Season.

For many years when we were first married and our children were young, we had a traditional live Christmas Tree - complete with real candles and lametta (German tinsel). The number of long, boring years that the poor tree stayed in the same pot - I used to feel sorry for it. When it finally caught the conifer fungus bug and died, I looked for alternative options. 

The first two pics are from Christmas 2016 - looks simple, huh?  Trust me it isn't. Getting those balls to hang in a straight line horizontally wasn't easy - and seriously tried my patience.  

The second two pics are from 2018 - my beloved late husband, Ronnie, made me a Christmas village scene from an old pallet which was then simply decorated with lights and strategically placed candles. It was absolutely stunning. The little nativity scene at the bottom is from when my children were small and was purchased as plain wood items - which I then painted.  

Apart from an Advent Kranz I can't decorate for Christmas anymore. It just isn't the same.  Plus, the grandkids don't come for Christmas - it is just too far to travel, their animals (cat and multiple dogs) are left alone whilst they are away, and the roads are hyper dangerous at that time of year.

But, I do love to see Christmas decorations. Has anyone recycled anything into Christmas decor?

Repurposing glass jars

I confess - I can be OCD.

For instance, there are very few seeds which pass through my kitchen without me having to "grow them on" - that has resulted in approx. 70 lemon trees in our lemon orchard, numerous apples trees, and most of my summer veg are all grown from something that originally passed through my kitchen and whose seeds were saved from last summer for re-using this summer.

I have another (annoying" habit to confess. I cannot chuck out a glass bottle or glass jar. Any size, small, large, fat or thin. I do drive myself crazy...

 

My kitchen windowsill is my plant ICU nursery. And that nursery prevented me from opening the window. I had to move all the sprouting veg before I could open the fly screen in order to open the window.

So, this morning I sat down and Googled. And found just what I needed to get that ICU nursery more conveniently situated without having to move it out of my kitchen.

The first pic is of my cluttered window ledge - you can see there is no way to open the fly screen without having to move the plants that are growing there.

 The second pic is of the hanging plants - and an empty window ledge. 

And the third pic is of the plain "strung up" jar.  

I think these will make excellent Christmas gifts too - add a bead or two, or some ribbon, or whatever takes your fancy in order to "tart it up" a bit.

The tutorial to make these jar hangers can be found here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZOVquCsU1s

Easy peeling fresh hard boiled chicken eggs

Has anyone else fund that trying to peel a freshly laid chicken egg which you have hard boiled results in the shell sticking to the egg white and ripping the egg white off as you try to peel it. I saw this hint somewhere and have just tried it - and as you can see, it works

The hint?

Steam the egg instead of boiling it.

I placed a sieve which was suspended just touching boiling water in a pot. Place the egg in the sieve, and then put the (pot) lid in the sieve on top of the egg. Steam for 10 - 12 minutes. Plonk the now cooked egg in cold water for 3 minutes and then peel. The shell comes off beautifully.

The added benefit - you could do this whilst you're using the pot for something else - for example potatoes for a potato salad - thereby saving on electricity / gas consumption because you don't have to switch on the stove for a second time.

Learning something new at my age

I read somewhere recently that one can clear the glass of a wood burning stove with wood ash from the fire.  So naturally, after one of our winter fires left the glass all "smoked" up recently, I had to try it.

Dirty, smoked filled glass

I took a small wad of loo paper (I don't buy or use paper towel in my home) dampened it and dipped it gently in the cold ash of the fire and then carefully wiped the glass.

Just a dab of wood ash on some tissue (loo) paper

Wow - it works!! 😀  It works beautifully.

Previously, as it doesn't easily "rub" off, I had taken a blade to the gunk in order to carefully remove it without scratching the glass.  But this is now a breeze.

Just be careful to use the fine wood ash - not the tiny (or  bigger) chunks of charcoal which may remain in your ash tray.

Leave the "chunks" of wood ash behind and just take a bit of the finer ash

If only I'd know this since 2012 when we first had the Rosie installed and keeping us warm during winter...

The glass in front of the fire pit
is clean again.  Nothing nicer than
seeing the flames of the fire that
 is keeping you warm - it
somehow adds to the warming effect.

P.S.  The "ashed" bit of loo paper went straight onto my compost heap.